The present invention relates in general to furniture and in particular to modular bean bag seating devices.
Most of the bean bag chairs in the prior art are one piece devices. These are soft and flexible, and usually do not maintain any single shape. Those that have two or more pieces are also either very flexibly, freely connected and do not maintain a fixed shape or the pieces are not restrainably connected to prevent relative movement. An example of the prior art, a furniture assembly by Dalsgard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,801, has three members--a U-shaped back and arm rest cushion, a seat cushion, and a neck pillow--that form a chair. The connection of the various members is accomplished by pairs of straps. Using this method of connecting the various members together, the neck pillow is not restrained in one position but rather can be rotated around the surface of the U-shaped back and arm rest cushion. The U-shaped back and arm rest cushion, connected to the seat cushion by pairs of straps, can also be rotated. The straps do not attach the members together in a manner restraining movement of the cushion to approximate a more conventional fixed-frame article of furniture.
The seat cushion of a bean bag chair may contain material beside some type of beans or pellets. For example, the Dalsgard patent shows the seat cushion containing a pad of foam rubber or plastic around which a granular material is stuffed. In addition, a patent for an inflatable chair by Savage, U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,107, has a pad of sponge rubber-like material for a seat and does not contain any granular material such as beans or pellets.
Toso, U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,850, features modular furniture elements, where each furniture element has a frame structure; the modules are connected alongside one another by a metal spring. The elements are restrainably connected by the rigid frame structure of the elements.
Ease of manufacture is another important characteristic of a bean bag chair. A patent for furniture construction by Marks, U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,506, allows the cover to be made of a generally rectangular piece of flexible material folded back over itself and stitched together in a particular manner. Although this bean bag chair is easily constructed, it is a one piece chair or multiple piece couch which is extremely flexible and does not maintain a fixed shape. The various parts of the couch are not restrainably connected.
Accordingly the present invention has the following objects:
To provide seating devices having multiple connectable units;
To provide seating devices having interchangeable units;
To provide seating devices which have an easy mechanism for attachement;
To provide seating devices which have an esthetical appearance;
To provide seating devices having no frame structure;
To provide seating devices which maintain a fixed shape; and
To provide seating devices into which a filling material may be inserted.